VERN BARNET FAITH & BELIEFS

Interfaith spirit brightens holidays

Kansas City’s first “Festival of Faiths,” a 12-day series of events celebrating religious diversity, concluded Nov. 18.

The festival opened with a multifaith luncheon and concluded with a dinner with many faiths speaking about gratitude.
In between were a live play based on the lives of folks of many faiths here, two provocative films and a choral concert with excerpts from the Lyric Opera’s forthcoming production of “John Brown.”

Teens spent two days and an overnight discussing issues in understanding their own and one another’s faiths. Two scholars, one Jewish, one Muslim, modeled interfaith dialogue in an adult evening program. Folks used a festival brochure for a self-guided tour of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Janet Burton, festival co-chair, said, “We wanted to widen the circle of dialogue and to reassure those who feared that learning about other faiths would weaken their own or lead to some composite faith.”

Some of the programs would have occurred without the festival, but by weaving them together, “the festival showed that through dialogue, people do not feel threatened but rather enlightened, engaged and grateful.”

Burton noted that new partnerships among area faith organizations were created and new friendships formed.

But Burton is critical of the lack of media attention, particularly to guest Akbar Ahmed, former Pakistani ambassador to the United Kingdom, called “the world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam” by the BBC, who spoke here the day after martial law was declared in Pakistan.

“The media lost a great opportunity to help the community to understand why events there affect our own lives,” she said.

“Our goal was dialogue. We didn’t expect such timeliness in relation to world events. I’m sobered by the size and potential impact of conflicts occurring between people of different faiths, but encouraged that our mission is valid: to listen, learn, understand and practice the exercise of acceptance.”

The festival is over, but awaiting us are holidays through which the festival spirit can continue.

December brings the minor Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, the beginning of Advent for Christians, with Christmas especially important in Western churches, the Muslim’s Eid al-Adha commemorating Abraham’s offering of Ishmael to God, the pagan Yule at the solstice, the Zoroastrians’ commemoration of the death of their founder and Kwanzaa, a new holiday of spiritual values with African roots.

Answering the cold is the warmth of interfaith friendship.

Vern Barnet does interfaith work in Kansas City. Reach him at vern@cres.org.

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